What lay people want to know from scientists? An analysis of a dialogue between scientists and lay people on the website Scienzaonline

“Scienzaonline” is an interactive web site developed by the Zoological Museum of Rome that offers various services. After three years on line, we examined approximately eight hundred questions receive by the service Expert on line to understand what the layman’s interests in science are and in which life contexts they emerge. The contents of the questions were categorized to reveal the function and the nature of the knowledge that people expect from “experts”. Some kind of actual accomplishment motivates most of the questions, though a considerable number of them have knowledge and understanding as their objective. Information is the main form of expected knowledge and disciplinary knowledge is viewed as the privileged source of it. A relevant percentage of messages reveal the desire to obtain explanations and validations of reported facts, an aid to go beyond factual knowledge. Striving to find answers to “great unanswered questions” emerges as a passionate intellectual endeavor for some people.